Thursday, April 18, 2013

Selecting Materials for a Latino User Collection: Issues and Recommendations, by Roberto Delgadillo

In this blog post I will provide guidance on how to select
materials for a Latino User Collection. I will also briefly discuss associated
issues and offer recommendations based on my experiences as a public and
academic librarian serving Latino populations for the past 16 years. Basically,
some tips and tricks and best practices I’ve developed during my career. [Editor's note: This is obviously written from a large library perspective, but please keep reading regardless - there's advice here we can all use.]

1. Review Collection Development Policies and Practices: If you
have a formal collection development policy, you need to review it to identify
practices and procedures that are potential barriers to your multicultural collection
development efforts. Some well-meaning policies unintentionally hamper the development
of collections for Latino users. Your policy should clearly indicate that your
library collections are for the benefit of everyone in your service area and
that some information needs in your community can only be met by purchasing
library materials that are bilingual or in languages other than English. Including
this idea in your collection development policy is a clear signal that you are
serious about meeting the information needs of all your citizens. In addition,
a policy statement will give you backup in case any members if your community
complain about the noticeable increase in the number of Spanish materials in
your library. Some libraries favor the purchasing from one or two major vendors,
discouraging the purchase of items from small or specialty presses in the
United States, publishers and distributors outside the country, neighborhood
bookstores, or conferences and book fairs. This practice to established library
policies adds a complication to selecting materials for your Latino users.

2. Link Collection Development to Information Needs: You will
gain much-needed support and assistance from Latino users by showing that your
attempts to meet their identified needs are sincere. A step in the right
direction is making certain that your collection development efforts are linked
very closely to the results of your library’s Latino demographic and community
needs assessment. Analysis of your Latino demographic, and community needs assessment,
will help you determine where the greatest needs are—and will enable you to
develop the library’s collection for Latinos users, based not on any
preconceived ideas of what might be needed, but on the needs expressed by them.
Finally, you will need to develop a plan that shows how your library will
allocate collection development funds to meet these needs. It is impossible to
obtain everything that is needed all at once; but, it is crucial that you make
a good-faith effort to obtain materials where they are needed.

3. Establish and Listen to a Latino Advisory Group: A voluntary
Latino advisory community group may be helpful in developing a collection for
Latinos. You can share your ideas on the allocation of resources with members
of this advisory group to get feedback on and support for your library
strategies and fiscal allocations. Members of advisory groups can provide
direct assistance in several ways:

When new books are processed, they can prepare bilingual
handouts and or bibliographies publicizing the new book arrivals.

They can review the newly acquired materials and write
bilingual articles about them for your library’s social media platforms.

They can be involved in organizing Spanish book clubs based
on the new arrivals.

Your local situation will best inform you to think of other
possible uses for this advisory group. Remember that this advisory group can
also serve as one of your political action groups when needed.

4. Handling Spanish and Bilingual Materials: Your library’s selectors
who are unfamiliar with Spanish will have difficulty choosing Spanish library
materials that are the most appropriate for your Latino library users. Just as
an English-speaking American might have some difficulty with British English or
with English from several hundred years ago, so too might an Americanized
Latino have some difficulty reading books in Spanish from different Latin American
countries. If the language barrier is too great, the material will not be used
or enjoyed. Generally speaking, the selector should try to select materials
that are closest to the vernacular used by Latinos in the community, but this
is not an absolute rule.

Bilingual materials also present a problem to
English-monolingual selectors, as they will not be able to judge the quality of
books that contain inferior translations. One solution is to have bilingual and
bicultural library staff that can make these kinds of judgments. The next best
solution is to encourage selectors to interact with and get advice from
bilingual individuals in the community.

A significant number of English-speaking Latinos have very
limited Spanish speaking and reading skills. Consequently their preference will
be for English-language materials on a wide variety of subjects. You cannot assume
that all Latinos want or need Spanish or bilingual resources.

Make sure that your collection includes English-language
materials about the history of Latinos in the United States, with particular
emphasis on the history of the particular subcultures represented in your
service area. It should also include a selection of literary works by U.S.
Latino authors writing in English, as well as English translations of major
literary works from the Spanish-speaking world. Your collection probably already
addresses many of the needs of Latinos whose first language is English but
remember to utilize the community needs data and Latino advisory members as
sources of suggestions and trends.

5. Support Selectors: You need to help provide a supportive
atmosphere to ensure that selectors can develop skills and confidence in
selecting Spanish library materials. Most likely, starting a Latino user collection
from scratch will necessitate change, some of which could be drastic. Some staff
will respond quite well; others may have a more difficult time. Useful
strategies include the following:

Establish in-house teams to discuss Latino collection development
issues and resolve any problems that arise.

Support attendance at national, regional, and state
conferences and workshops where Latino collection development issues are
discussed.

Cooperate with other libraries and library associations to bring
outside speakers and experts to local workshops and conferences.

Encourage collection development staff to interact with the
Latino community and solicit ideas on improving the library’s collections.

Being aware of these issues and dealing with them
constructively will establish and help ensure your library’s overall success in
collection development as it may very well depend on how effectively staff can
respond and adapt to the needs of customers.

Roberto C. Delgadillo
is a Humanities, Social Sciences and Government Information Services
Manager/Librarian with the Peter J. Shields Library at the University of
California, Davis. Before UC Davis, he worked as a Public Services Librarian
and Copy Cataloguer at the Inglewood and Beverly Hills Public Library systems.
He rants daily on his Facebook under the nom de guerre The Broken Token.